Avidyne Unveils Synthetic Vision As Part of Software Upgrade for Entegra Release 9

EAA AirVenture – OSHKOSH – July 25, 2011-– Avidyne Corporation, a leading provider of integrated avionics and safety systems for general aviation aircraft, today unveiled their soon-to-be-certified v9.3 software upgrade — including their innovative implementation of Synthetic Vision technology (SVS) — for the award-winning Entegra Release 9 Integrated Flight Deck (R9) system. The v9.3 software release, which is expected to receive final FAA certification later this year, also provides support for three-screen R9 installations and on-board weather radar.

“Synthetic Vision provides a new level of situational awareness for our R9 customers, and we have included some innovative features that make this truly compelling and intuitive,” said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne’s Chief Operating Officer. “SVS also gives pilots and passengers additional peace of mind by clearly displaying nearby hazards—including terrain, obstacles, and traffic — in a highly accurate, full-color 3D presentation, with dynamically-computed visual and aural alerts for added safety.”

“Customers will find our SVS second to none in terms innovative features that are easy to use and that dramatically enhance situational awareness,” said Dan Schwinn, Avidyne’s President and CEO. “Forward Looking Terrain Alerting and an adjustable Field of View are great examples of how Avidyne has designed a synthetic vision system that is truly compelling and that R9 pilots will not want to fly without.”

About v9.3 and SVS

Avidyne’s SVS provides a graphical presentation of three-dimensional terrain and water, obstacles, and traffic, and includes the addition of a Total Velocity Vector (TVV) on the primary flight display. The TVV provides a visual representation of the aircraft flight path, indicating where the airplane is going and not necessarily where the aircraft is pointing. METAR-colored flags make it easy to locate airports in the 3D scene, and based on the approach you have entered in the FMS, the selected runway at your destination airport is highlighted for additional clarity and ease of identification.

Avidyne’s SVS has an innovative selectable horizontal field of view (FOV), which provides pilots with the ability to adjust the 3D zoom setting of the terrain presentation on the display. The default field of view is 45 degrees for normal flight. However, a wide-angle 120-degree field of view setting provides more ‘peripheral vision’ when maneuvering in mountainous areas, while the 20-degree close-in view might be used to zoom in on a distant airport, allowing you to actually verify a runway heading from a greater distance away.

SVS also provides color-coded Terrain Awareness that displays yellow and red hashed-patterns overlaid on the terrain display correlating with terrain that is 101 to 500 below your current altitude (yellow) and terrain that is 100 feet below to anything above your current altitude (red). Avidyne’s unique Forward Looking Terrain Alerting (FLTA) feature provides an extra measure of safety by dynamically displaying a solid yellow or red impact point based on the projected flight path.

Version 9.3 software also supports cockpit configurations with three-displays and on-board weather radar. Entegra Release 9 was designed with a versatile peer-to-peer data bus architecture that easily enables expansion of cockpit configurations of two, three, or more integrated flight displays (IFDs), while allowing each display to have full access to all of the data of the others. In a three-IFD system, like Avidyne is certifying for the Piper Meridian, each IFD can display on-board weather radar and SVS simultaneously, just as they all have access to other important information like datalink weather, checklists, and engine instrumentation.

“R9’s redundancy and safety benefits are unmatched in the industry,” Schwinn added.

Pricing and Availability

Existing owners of Entegra Release 9-equipped Cirrus SR20/SR22 and Piper Matrix aircraft will receive v9.3 software and the Synthetic Vision upgrade free of charge.For new installation of Entegra Release 9, the Synthetic Vision option can be enabled for an additional $5,000 per display.

Version 9.3 software and SVS will be approved later this year, and will also add the Piper PA-46 Mirage and Meridian models to the growing list of Entegra Release 9-approved aircraft.